When Hollywood actor, Clive Owen is not on stage debuting on Broadway, for the revived Old Times, we find him playing the role of the anguished Dr John Thackery in the television drama series The Knick. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Owen, 51, carries the show on his shoulders trying to live up to the stellar performance he delivered in the first season.

Set the scene for Thackery at the beginning of the second season.
He has ended up in rehab and is being given heroin as a treatment for what they called cocaine frenzy. That is based on fact and research — cocaine was legal at the time and they thought that you dealt with cocaine frenzy by calming patients down with a bit of heroin. I’ve got to look worse than I’ve ever looked before. And a lot of season two for Thackery is about trying to get back on track and keeping off the drugs.

Was it difficult to get yourself in to that headspace?
Yes, but also he’s a little off the rails at those points and that’s exciting to play. The whole beauty of playing the part has been how far can you push it? When I read that first episode of season one, I thought, ‘I’ve never read a character like this.’ This is a high wire act. He’s so difficult and that’s kind of the beauty of it. It’s something that both Soderbergh and I embraced.

How have you found performing the intricate surgeries?
Steven didn’t want to bring in somebody else’s hands to make us look dazzling. We do nearly everything and he just shoots it very cleverly. We just have to look convincing and we’ve got a great medical expert to tell us how to do that. The operation scenes were the most challenging because they were technically hard. The rhythm’s dictated by the operation, the rhythm of the dialogue, everything. You’ve got the relationships with the doctors and you’ve got the pretence of performing it.
Premieres tomorrow, at 9 pm, on HBO Defined— Team Indulge